It's a good time to be studying nuclear engineering. As noted in the subhead of a recent story (subscribers only) in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "For the first time in decades, new reactors are being planned, and a new generation of engineers must be trained."

It's up to universities like UMR to do the training, and UMR is uniquely poised to do so. Unlike many universities with nuclear engineering programs, UMR is not hamstrung by what the Chronicle calls "the demise of the university-based reactor."

Continue reading "Going nuclear" »

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 01:01 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Graduate student Brandon Distler has a cool idea about chilling the core of nuclear reactors.

While water is what cools the core of a conventional nuclear reactor, Distler, a grad student in UMR's nuclear engineering program, says salt would be a better alternative in some advanced reactor designs. The federal Energy Department thinks his idea has merit and has granted Distler a fellowship to study it further.

Distler is one of only a dozen graduate students to receive the fellowship this year through the DOE’s Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative. (Full story.)

Technorati tags: nuclear reactor

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 05:54 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The most daunting tasks don't necessarily require the largest work forces; it's tasks on the paths with most resistance that require the most effort, according to Scott Spychala.

And big government projects tend to be full of people who are really good at transferring you to someone else who can't help you. That may or may not be true at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where the U.S. plans to store nuclear waste for thousands of years. Spychala thinks he has a way to help the various Yucca Mountain stakeholders work together more efficiently. A senior in nuclear engineering at UMR, Spychala is going to present his team's research June 20 at an international conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

Posted by Lance Feyh at 10:15 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)